Andy Shank, a volunteer helping to gather signatures to recall state Senate President John Morse, watches Dana Beasley sign a petition at the corner of West Uintah and North 19th streets in Colorado Springs on Thursday. Morse, a Democrat representing Senate District 11, is term-limited in 2014. "I don't like what went on in the legislature in Denver, " Beasley said.

<!--IPTC: COLORADO SPRINGS, CO. - May 16: Sterling Largin signs the petition to recall Senate President John Morse given to him by volunteer circulator Bill Mistretta at Specialty Sports & Supply in Colorado Springs. Petitioners have until June 3 to gather 7,178 signatures to spark a recall of Senate President John Morse, Colorado Springs May 16, 2013 Colorado Springs, Colorado. Two groups are hard at work in the recall effort, The El Paso Freedom Defense Committee/Basic Freedom Defense Fund to oust him and A Whole Lot of People for John Morse to keep him in. (Photo By Joe Amon/The Denver Post) -->

EL PASO COUNTY — It’s rare to find a Democrat representing Senate District 11, especially in a part of the state where most of the surrounding Senate districts are Republican strongholds.

Even more rare — if not unprecedented — is a Democrat who not only won the seat, but then turned around and won re-election four years later.

But that’s exactly what John Morse did, in 2006 and 2010.

And now, Morse, who has since worked his way to becoming Senate president and is term-limited in 2014, appears on the cusp of a third election later this year.

Yet, it’s an election no incumbent politician wants to endure.

“Whether he wants it or not, I guarantee there’s going to be a recall election,” said Robert Harris, a member of the Basic Freedom Defense Fund, which is spearheading a recall of Morse. The organization must gather 7,178 signatures from residents of the district before a June 3 deadline.

“People are going door-to-door. We have business owners with petitions at the ready if a person wants to sign it. We’re just ready,” he said.

The recall effort sprang from conservative anger at Morse and his party for passing gun-control measures.

According to the secretary of state’s office, there has never been a successful recall of a state legislator — positive news to Morse.

“They’re just testing here to see if they can take out the Senate president and make a statement, a statement that says: ‘Don’t ever be a leader and be for sensible reforms,’ ” Morse said. “And they’re targeting me because I’m in a swing district, surrounded by conservative ideologues.”

Gun legislation “landed on the laps”

Morse, who has said gun legislation “landed on the laps of Democrats” in the wake of mass shootings in Aurora in July and at an elementary school in Connecticut in December, defeated Republican Ed Jones in 2006 for the District 11 seat. Morse’s victory was the first in that district by a Democrat in more than two decades.

The district is a reflection of Colorado’s voting electorate: divided almost evenly into thirds among Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters, with about 52,000 total registered voters. But up until 2006, unaffiliated voters broke more for Republicans.

Four years after Morse’s 2006 victory, he narrowly won re-election over Owen Hill, a Republican who is now the state senator for District 10, in central Colorado Springs.

“It’s a perfect opportunity, this recall, for the citizens of that district to say, ‘You’re not doing what we want,’ ” said Hill, who has rallied volunteers for the Basic Freedom Defense Fund. “Any of these recall efforts are going to be tough. But the legislature, under Morse’s leadership, has overplayed its hand.”

Substantial funds nationally, locally

A substantial amount of national and local money has been doled out to the El Paso Freedom Defense Committee — which works closely with the Basic Freedom Defense Fund — and the group A Whole Lot of People for John Morse, which is supporting the senator.

Campaign-finance reports filed with the secretary of state’s office show that A Whole Lot of People for John Morse has received about $25,500 in financial contributions. About $20,000 of that has come from the national liberal firm America Votes, a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization that coordinates issue advocacy and election campaigns. Republicans have argued that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg — who lobbied heavily for tougher gun laws nationally, including Colorado — is a donor to America Votes, although the nonprofit does not disclose its donors.

Meanwhile, the El Paso Freedom Defense Committee has raised about $16,400. About $14,000 of that has come from a local 501(c)( 4) called I Am Created Equal.

Morse supporters have castigated, through advertising and a website, the Basic Freedom Defense Fund for hiring the local Colorado Springs firm Kennedy Enterprises, which pays individuals to gather signatures and doesn’t require background checks.

Meanwhile, the National Rifle Association last week began sending out mailers urging residents of the district to sign petitions to oust Morse.

The members of A Whole Lot of People for John Morse and Basic Freedom Defense Fund are currently the most invested in issues surrounding the recall effort.

On a recent morning, a handful of people walked into a third-floor office in a building centrally located in Colorado Springs to hand in petitions. A spokesman for Kennedy Enterprises said their employees are not allowed to speak with the media.

Phil McDonald, who owns a small athletic-apparel shop in the district, volunteers for the Basic Freedom Defense Fund and is not paid to gather signatures.

“But anyone who lives in the district and wants to sign the recall petition can do it here,” said McDonald on a recent afternoon, pointing to a Senate District 11 map toward the rear of his store. “First, we look at the map, make sure they’re residents inside the district, and then sign them up.”

McDonald, a one-time Republican mayoral candidate in 2011, would not divulge the number of signatures he has gathered — just as the other petitioners wouldn’t. Several business owners in the district have volunteered, as has McDonald, to gather signatures from within their establishments.

About $150,000 in election costs

If the mininum number of signatures are turned in by June 3 and verified, the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder’s office estimates it would cost county taxpayers about $150,000 for the recall election.

Jeff Hayes, chairman of the El Paso County Republican Party, on Friday said the party has not settled on a candidate to challenge Morse if a recall does occur. Hill, whose district borders Senate District 11, says the candidate needs to be more of an “edgy, independent kind.”

“I’m preparing myself for the campaign of a lifetime,” Morse said. “I’ll be campaigning for all those killed by gun violence, because, you see, leaders never take or receive credit, they only get the blame.”

A native of Colorado, Kurtis Lee was a politics reporter for The Denver Post from February 2011 until July 2014. He graduated cum laude from Temple University in 2009 with a degree in journalism and political science. He previously worked as an online writer in Washington, D.C., for the PBS NewsHour.

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